Sian Bamford

Advanced Practice Physiotherapist | London

Sian is an advanced practice physiotherapist working for the Royal Free London, NHS Trust at Barnet Hospital. For the past 15 years, she has predominantly worked in the spinal orthopaedic clinics, where she assesses and manages patients with spinal pain who have been referred for a specialist orthopaedic opinion. This involves sending patients for appropriate investigations, listing for surgical procedures or referring for conservative treatment, including physiotherapy. 

In 2015, Sian and her colleagues were successful in acquiring funding from the Health Foundation to pilot a First Contact Physiotherapy (FCP) service for spinal patients within a local GP surgery. The pilot demonstrated high levels of patient satisfaction, reduced the number of investigations and referrals to secondary care. In 2018, their poster presentation won the Primary and Workforce Transformation Award at Physiotherapy UK. She continues to work as a FCP in the Royal Free London NHS Trusts commissioned service in Enfield and in 2020, the FCP service won the NEL/ NCL Primary Care Staff Award.  

Over the past 18 months, Sian has been working within the Rheumatology Department at Barnet Hospital and has been involved in the development of a specialist Axial Spondyloathritis clinic to assess, diagnose and manage patients with suspected Axial Spondyloarthritis. The team have recently been accepted as one of five NHS institutions onto the NASS Aspiring to Excellence QI programme. With the support of NASS and NHS transformation, the team are developing and implementing strategies to reduce the delay to diagnosis and improve patient education.

Sian is passionate about holistic patient centred care and empowering patients to develop self-management strategies. 

She is also involved in the training and mentorship of advanced practice physiotherapists and education of GPs and other AHPs.